The Big Field Trip

From The Big Field Trip – India, January, 2010

I lived with the Ranawat family for 2 months, and I learned a lot about Indian family life. The Ranawat family lives in Udaipur, which is in the state of Rajasthan in North West India. They are Rajput people from the warrior caste, and they practice the Hindu religion. By living with them, I have learned about life in an Indian extended family: about marriage, about religion, about cooking and chores, about education and work, and about what they do in their free time. In a lot of ways the Ranawat family is different from my family, but in some ways they are similar.

The Ranawat family is an extended family. All seven of them live all together in one home with four bedrooms, two kitchens, two living rooms and the rooftop, where the family spends a lot of time working and playing. Raja is the youngest; he is 6 ¼ years old. Prachi is 16 years old, and she is in 10th grade. Yuvraj is Raja’s dad, and Pinky is Raja’s mom. Lala is Raja and Prachi’s aunt and Yuvraj’s sister. Chandkanwer (Chand) is Prachi and Raja’s grandma and Yuvraj and Lala’s mom. Sawant Singhji is Chand’s husband, and he is the head of the family. He makes all of the important decisions for the family.

From The Big Field Trip – India, January, 2010

Pinky had to leave her mother and father when she was married to go to Yuvraj’s house. Pinky is not allowed to show her face to or to speak to Sawant (only on the phone). Every time Sawant walks by, Pinky puts her veil over her face. In India, the bride always moves to the groom’s house. Lala is an exception. When she was married, she moved to her husband’s house. She had a child, but the child died when she was 1 ½ years old, because she had a hole in her heart. Then Lala’s husband died because he was sick. Her in-laws said you can choose to live with us or to go back home to your parents. Lala lives part of the year with her in-laws and part of the time with her parents.

In India most marriages are arranged. When Sawant was looking for a bride for Yuvraj, he selected Pinky because of her photo, because she had gone to university, because her parents were well respected and have money, because her horoscope was a good match for Yuvraj, and most of all because she came from a good Rajput family, which means that her family follows the same traditions. For the wedding Yuvraj and the other men from his family travelled on a bus for five hours to Pinky’s village. I saw a video of their marriage. The wedding lasted for five days. Pinky’s family paid for the wedding. There was a ceremony where Pinky followed Yuvraj four times around a flame and Yuvraj followed Pinky three times around the flame. They were making seven promises. Yuvraj returned to his home with Pinky. Her family was shrieking and crying because she was leaving. Pinky spends one month with her real mother and father and the other part of the year with Yuvraj’s family.

From The Big Field Trip – India, 2010

The Ranawat family is Hindu. They worship all of the gods, but the main family god is Eklinji (which is Shiva). They have a shrine upstairs, and they have pictures of some of the gods, like Eklinji, Ganesh, and Shrinathji, and a picture of Lala’s husband. In the morning, after Yuvraj takes a shower, he lights incense sticks in front of the shrine and prays to the gods. In the evening Pinky or Chand (Grandma), twists a cotton ball into a wick and puts it into a bowl on a stand. Then they pour ghee, clarified butter, into the bowl and light the cotton wick. It makes a candle that lasts about a half an hour. It is an offering to the gods. Once a year, on the anniversary of Lala’s husband’s death, the family prepares a plate of food and offers it to Lala’s husband’s picture at the shrine. Only Raja can eat it.

Because the Ranawats are Rajput, they can eat meat like chicken and mutton, but if they do so, they can’t touch the shrine or enter a Shiva or Ganesh temple before they bathe. On holidays that honor gods, the Ranawat family does not eat meat, but on holidays that honor goddesses they eat meat. There are many fasting days. On Navratri , Prachi has taken a vow to not eat meat for those nine days (for nine years). Everyone (except Raja) fasts on the holidays Shivratri and Janmastmi. Dewali is the biggest Hindu festival of the year. For Dewali people clean up their houses, decorate and paint their houses, and light firecrackers. A large ghee lamp, called a depak, is lit all night to honor Lakshmi. Lakshmi is the goddess of wealth.

From The Big Field Trip – India, 2010

The Ranawat family does a lot of cooking and chores, and they do most of the chores by hand, without the use of a machine. Pinky, Lala and Chand (grandma) wash most of the laundry by hand. I’ve often seen Chand or Lala scrubbing sudsy clothes against the cement floor of the rooftop patio. They also wash dishes by hand. They don’t buy flour at the store. They buy huge bags of whole wheat grains. The women of the Ranawat family squat on roof tossing the wheat out of a bowl so that the chaff will blow away. They pour the wheat on the ground to take rocks out. When the wheat is clean, they take it to the miller in town to have it ground into whole wheat flour. They make chapatti, circular flat bread like tortillas, with the flour for every meal. Their everyday meal includes chapattis and vegetables or daal, which is lentils or beans. Yuvraj makes a good mutton curry and steamed rice. He took professional cooking classes, but he doesn’t cook at home very often; most men in India don’t.

From The Big Field Trip – India, 2010

Every day the milk farmer comes on his motorcycle to deliver milk to the Ranawat family. When they get the milk they pasteurize it by boiling it. If they want to make yogurt, they put some milk in a bowl with a spoonful of their last batch of yogurt. They leave it covered on the counter, and it is ready the next day. They strain it to make it thick. Sometimes they put sugar in it and sometimes they add the yogurt to curries.

Raja and Prachi go to school at private schools. Prachi is in 10th grade and Raja is in 1st grade. Prachi goes to school on her motorbike and Raja goes to school in a small private bus. They go to school from Monday to Saturday. They only have Sunday off. One evening I went to Raja’s school for a prize distribution. The teachers gave out prizes for sports and academics. I thought it was pretty cool because they did traditional dances from Rajasthan. A little kid was dressed as Ganesh, which is the elephant headed god. Little Ganesh stood on a man’s palms, and the man held him high so that everyone could see him.

From The Big Field Trip – India, 2010

Prachi has to study hard for board exams this year because the tests she takes in 10th grade determine what college she’ll be in and what job she’ll have when she grows up. On normal schooldays Prachi studies only for 2 or 4 hours, but at the time of exams she studies for 7 or 8 hours. She studies all night and sleeps during the day because in the night time it is quiet, and she can study without interruption. Raja and Prachi do schoolwork in both English and Hindi. Raja does his homework for 1 to 2 hours a day. Pinky makes Raja to do his homework, but Prachi doesn’t need to be told to do her studies.

Yuvraj is the only one who earns money for the whole family. He is a tour guide for foreign tourists. He speaks English and Italian, as well as Hindi. He is a good tour guide because he knows a lot about Hinduism and the history of Udaipur. Sawant also gets money from his pension. He has been retired for 11 years. He worked at a hospital. He was the boss of the nursing staff. Pinky and Lala are taking exams so they can be primary school teachers. They may teach school or they may not.

The members of the Ranawat family spend most of their time working, but they have leisure time too. Sawant reads the newspaper, listens to the radio, or watches television. Every day he walks for one hour on the roof for exercise. When Chand has time, she sits on the roof talking to Sawant, or she takes a nap. Yuvraj works most days of the year, but has the summer off because there are fewer tourists due to the heat. When he doesn’t have work, Yuvraj takes naps, goes to his office to chat with his buddies, or does the family errands. Lala and Pinky are mostly working all of the day, but when they have the time they sit on the roof and talk to one another or take naps.

From The Big Field Trip – India, January, 2010

On Saturday evenings or Sundays, Prachi and Raja try to talk Lala or Pinky into bringing them to Sukharia Circle where go on paddle boats, ride camels, and ride on horses. Raja goes on all of the swings, and then they eat at a fast food restaurant. Sometimes Prachi tries to talk Pinky into going to the movies. They go to Bollywood movies. We went to a Bollywood movie called Veer. Every time Veer killed somebody, the crowd cheered. The crowd cheered even when Veer got killed. Bollywood movies are like musical films, because the actors sing and dance. Those songs are played on the radios before the movies even come out, and they become very famous; everyone, all my friends and people on the streets, starts singing them. Prachi goes to internet café to download the songs.

Raja is the skating champion for his age in the state of Rajasthan. He races around the rink with his roller skates. He beat the other kids in his age group (six years) at a completion in Udaipur when we were living with them. When we were living with the Ranawat family, Cruz practiced skating with Raja once a day.

From The Big Field Trip – India, January, 2010

Prachi likes to chat and roam around Udaipur with her girl friends from school. She goes to parties. Her five closest friends are from different religions. One is Jain, two are Muslim, one is Christian, one is a Brahmin (Hindu), and Prachi is Rajput (Hindu). They scoot around town on three scooters, two to a scooter.

I am glad that I lived with the Ranawat family. They were very nice and they embraced me as a member of the family. They took me out with them like I was one of their children: to school events, to meet friends and family, to Sukharia Circle, to Chand’s village, to the movies, and to go shopping. They invited me into their kitchen to eat and cook with them. We played and talked to each other (and Yuvraj teased me). They taught me Hindi and how to eat with my hands. I learned a lot about family life by living with them. When we left, it was very sad. Lala, Pinky, my mom, and I cried at the bus station as we were leaving, but Raja thought we were coming back in a few days, so he didn’t cry. Now he knows we aren’t coming back soon, so he’s crying. I hope that the Ranawat family can come to the USA to live with us for a while. I would teach them about American traditions.

From The Big Field Trip – India, 2010

Tags:   Family · India · Religion · School · Work7 Comments